Win Lose or Draw

In the Iraq war there are three strategies: win, lose or draw. Our choice is to win.

When my dad was asked what his Cold War strategy was, he said that it was simple: "We win, they lose."

That is the only strategy in war that makes any sense. You don't go to war to end up in a tie game. If you have a single ounce of common sense and courage, you go to war to win and you do whatever you have to do to come out victorious. To do less is to betray those who died fighting the war.

Now thanks to the Democrats, most of whom voted to go to war, we are seeing a new strategy: win, lose or run. My party is the one that wants to win. The Democrats want to run.

They don't call it running; they call it having an "exit strategy." And they want a date certain for running for the exit. Maybe they are too wound up in their desperate attempt to work out a strategy for winning back control of Congress to understand what kind of a message setting a date for withdrawal sends to the enemy. Perhaps they don't understand that with a date set, the enemy has only to hang in there until we leave, thus giving them a free hand to subjugate the Iraqi people.

In a speech October 6, President Bush spoke about the insanity of setting a deadline for withdrawal."I recognize that Americans want our troops to come home as quickly as possible," he said. "So do I. Some contend that we should set a deadline for withdrawing U.S. forces. Let me explain why that would be a serious mistake. Setting an artificial timetable would send the wrong message to the Iraqis - who need to know that America will not leave before the job is done. It would send the wrong message to our troops - who need to know that we are serious about completing the mission they are risking their lives to achieve. And it would send the wrong message to the enemy - who would know that all they have to do is to wait us out. We will stay in Iraq as long as we are needed - and not a day longer."

And he spelled out his strategy: "As the Iraqis stand up, we will stand down."

Today, in his Veterans Day speech in Pennsylvania, he echoed my dad, pledging, "We will never back down, we will never give in, we will never accept anything less than complete victory. So we will fight them there we will fight them across the world - and we will stay in the fight until the fight is won."

The Democrats who want to run have another strategy. They want to convince the American people that the president lied to them about Saddam's Weapons of Mass Destruction

In his speech today he lashed back at the Democrats for their shameful and utterly untruthful allegations that he lied us into a war, saying that "it is deeply irresponsible to rewrite the history of how that war began." It has been a response too long in coming and I hope it marks the point where President Bush goes on the offensive against his enemies here at home.

Noting that "some Democrats and anti-war critics are now claiming we manipulated the intelligence and misled the American people about why we went to war," he said such critics know full well that "a bipartisan Senate investigation found no evidence of political pressure to change the intelligence community's judgments related to Iraq's weapons programs. They also know that intelligence agencies from around the world agreed with our assessment of Saddam Hussein. They know the United Nations passed more than a dozen resolutions, citing his development and possession of weapons of mass destruction."

He ended by warning: "The stakes in the global war on terror are too high and the national interest is too important for politicians to throw out false charges."

Just as it is totally irresponsible for the Democrats to call for a retreat from Iraq and call running a 'strategy.'

Mike Reagan, the eldest son of the late President Ronald Reagan, is heard on more than 200 talk radio stations nationally as part of the Radio America Network. Look for Mike's new book 'Twice Adopted'. Order autographed books at www.reagan.com. Email Comments to mereagan@hotmail.com .